


Move Me

by claremontpsych



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Fluff, F/M, Future Fic, Malcolm Bright Needs a Hug, breakup and makeup, future brightwell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:47:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23386852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/claremontpsych/pseuds/claremontpsych
Summary: It had been three years. Three years since Malcolm and Dani split up, went their separate ways, never to even think again. Hell, Malcolm even moved out of New York. It wasn’t an amicable breakup, to say the least, and to even think of the detective now sends a pain-filled pang into Malcolm Bright’s heart.OR, A Brightwell one shot with a maybe happy ending. Inspired by Move Me by Badflower.
Relationships: Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell
Comments: 5
Kudos: 35





	Move Me

**Author's Note:**

> Like I mentioned in the summary, this one's inspired by the song "Move Me" by Badflower, and I recommend giving it a listen while reading this!

It had been three years. Three years since Malcolm and Dani split up, went their separate ways, never to even think again. Hell, Malcolm even moved out of New York. It wasn’t an amicable breakup, to say the least, and to even think of the detective now sends a pain-filled pang into Malcolm Bright’s heart.

They fought like cats and dogs before breaking up. Ugly, screaming fights. Glasses thrown across the loft and Malcolm, god bless him, sleeping on the couch despite the night terrors. Dani often asked him why. Had she lost her shine? Was she as disposable to him as his possessions, something that can be replaced so easily for the shinier, newer model? Was she broken? Was she not what he wanted?

Malcolm had a different issue. He always believed himself to be a monster, and he’d shut down under any fragment of change placed upon him out of fear. A change in seasons, even, could be enough to ruin Malcolm’s routine and turn him into a completely different being. He had promised her that he would do better, but he was only doing worse as the days went on. 

At the end of things, Dani said one phrase to Malcolm that has echoed in his mind no matter how many partners he’s had to get over her: “I’ll never be fake like you.” She uttered the words so casually under her breath. She was packing her bags, leaving him. Malcolm was practically on his knees pleading for her to stay. She had simply had enough, and away she went. It led Malcolm on a journey not unlike the one he had taken as a chance to escape his father. He moved back south-- he still had connections in Washington, D.C. from his time at Quantico, and picked up a one-off profiling job down there.

He came back to New York for holidays, and that was it. He was sick of being surrounded by the things that looked like her, places that smelled like her, food that tasted like her. Everything he had done with Dani had left a sour taste in his mouth, and he all but begged for the chance to move away. He started to hate rainy days more, she had always loved it when it rained over Manhattan because it made the city die down for a while. 

Unbeknownst to him, Dani wasn’t much better. After all these years she wasn’t sad, but she was angry. She kicked and screamed and punched walls because the precinct made her feel insane. Malcolm wasn’t there with his manic energy and absolute stupidity to round out the unit, and their new profiler was terrible by comparison. She hoped, somewhere under her anger, that Malcolm would come back to her someday and they could mend their wounds and be back to what they had before, but when she even thought about that she wanted to scream. He was just a little boy in a man’s body, and he would never come to his senses.

Three years felt like forever and Malcolm couldn’t hold a steady relationship for more than a couple of months, and Dani hadn’t even considered dating anyone. Her walls were damaged by Malcolm’s kind words and shaky hands, and shattered when the pair split. Everything in Malcolm knew he wasn’t too dignified to get on his hands and knees and beg for another chance. Ask her “If you loved me, then why couldn’t we try a second time?” What Malcolm was, however, too dignified for was to crawl home to his mother’s building, move back into the loft, and plead with Gil for another shot at profiling for Major Crimes. Blind faith kept Malcolm sane all these years, and he refused to crack his own resolve from it. 

Dani knew he had moved back to D.C., she wasn’t stupid. Sometimes she’d walk past his old place and think about him coming back to her as a new man. Then she’d punch the brick wall outside the building for even indulging in the thought. When Malcolm came home for the holidays, he’d intentionally drive past the precinct any time he’d go somewhere, even if it was just for groceries, dipping gently into the ideas of storming in there and recapturing Dani’s attention, even if just for a moment. He cursed himself for each inkling of an attempt. He wanted her eyes on him for another half a second. Just that would be enough to satisfy him, he reasoned. Just to know if her eyes still had the same shine they’d get when she listened to jazz with him. Or if her hair still had the same curls, and if she still wore it half pulled back on windy days. He wanted to know if she was still his Dani at heart, if she was still the woman he loved so dearly. 

It was Christmastime, and unfortunately Malcolm’s wishes somewhat came true. What are the odds, in a city as big as New York City is, to come across your ex lover whilst trying to get a coffee? Well, apparently they’re at least halfway decent when the coffee shop you frequent is also nearest to their place of work and they also indulge in a hot tea when the weather bites as much as it did on this day. Malcolm and Dani shared a glance across the coffee shop, nothing more than their eyes meeting for a moment, before they both went about their lives as if they hadn’t encountered each other. As if that barely two second long exchange hadn’t been enough to throw Dani off her game for the entire day and enough to make Malcolm feel ill-- he hadn’t actually considered what he would do if he ever saw her again. She knew where he had come from, sure, but she didn’t want to know where he had been. He shared a similar feeling.

Considering the odds of coming across your ex once were apparently so good, Malcolm didn’t know what to think the second time he saw her. He was walking with Ainsley, which the pair often do when they need an excuse to escape from Jessica’s somewhat insane tendencies, and sure as the world there she was again. Going about her own business, Malcolm wasn’t entirely sure what she was up to, but she heard his voice as he talked about God knows what to his sister, turned to check if it really was him, and the pair met eyes again. 

Two days later, Malcolm swallowed his pride and sent her an apology text, holding himself accountable for their past, telling her that it was nice to (sort of) see her. She ignored it for a while and then sent a half-hearted “I really don’t want to talk to you” in response. He apologized again as a result, something he was always quite good at doing. It broke Dani’s heart for a moment, and she ignored the text overnight before swallowing her own pride and deciding that maybe, just maybe, she could talk to him. As friends. Purely platonic. Her reply was simple. “Coffee?”

It was a peace offering. That same morning, they stepped into the coffee shop and met eyes again and this time he offered a wave. She nodded, an acknowledgement, trying to hold up a strong front and not lower herself to feeling for him again.

They talked casually. He sipped a black coffee with sugar, she was partial to an Earl Grey tea. It was all small talk. 

“How’s D.C.?” She would ask.

“Good. How’s the precinct?”

“Good.”

Malcolm was the lesser proud of the pair in this moment, and he took a deep breath before giving into his desire to crawl back to her.

“Dani, ba-” He stopped himself shy of calling her baby. “I… I just wanted to say that I don’t mean to rush you, but I want to have a life again. I want you, again. I know that this is insane and that I don’t deserve this but please, God, if you loved me like you did back then, just… give me a second try.”

Dani immediately felt her walls crumble. Nobody knew her like Malcolm Bright, and nobody could so flawlessly demolish her resolve so simply. She sighed and thought about it for a long moment, Malcolm’s crystal eyes all but seeing her soul.

“I… I don’t know Malcolm. I’ve spent three years trying to recover from you-- you can’t come do this to me again.”

“I know, and please don’t think these three years have been easy for me either. Everything I do brings me back to you and it kills me. What about our future? Everything we wanted-- we can try again, we can be better this time.”

“We can try, I guess. One wrong move and your ass is done, you hear me?” The command seemed joking, but both knew well that it was a serious threat.

“Of course. I just want my life back, it was always you. Everything everywhere was always you. We can settle down, I’ll move back. Everything you’ve ever wanted is yours, I promise you.”  
In three more years, he had made good. He returned to New York, Gil let him consult again, and the pair had moved out of the loft only recently, settling into a property of their own. A ring was on Dani’s finger-- Malcolm’s promise of forever, a future and the world at her feet. Engagement. Next, the pair hoped to marry and have children.

Every night before she fell asleep, Malcolm would remind Dani of all the ways she moved him, and how he loved her so.

**Author's Note:**

> Make sure to leave comments/Kudos! This one was really fun for me to write and I hope you all enjoyed it as well :)


End file.
